Date: Wed, 26 Nov 1997 11:52:26 -0700 From: Charlie Ford To: type2@bigkitty.azaccess.com Subject: Rambling Around New England Upon leaving Grand Manan Saturday a week ago, I headed north for a little ways but turned back south because the roads and the snow were getting a little tough to deal with. Not only did I find the weather tough to deal with, but I also found that my feelings were not the best in the world. Grand Manan had really pulled a lot of enthusiasm toward Canada from me. I drove back down New Brunswick Highway #1 to the Calais Border crossing. I had heard that getting back into the USA was usually a tough proposition complete with searches and other horrors. I approached the crossing expecting to suffer the dismantling of the Mothership. This was not the case at all. In fact, the crossing gaurd ask me three questions, "Where have you been?" I answered, "Grand Manan". "What were you doing there?", "seeing some friends of mine", "Where are you from?", "Georgia". He then said "Thanks, have a nice day" and I was on my way. After pulling away I headed out US Highway #1 and proceeded back down to the Irving Store where I had my forgotten fifty dollars waiting for me. I gathered the money with no problem and aftyer filling with gas, headed south on Highway #9. I had traveled this road north to Calais on my way up, but it had been dark. I wanted to see what this lonely stretch looked like in the daytime. Yep, it is lonely and secluded. Very few houses dot the roadside and even fewer cars dot the roadway. I started to feel once again like I was on an adventure, a feeling that had been misplaced somehwere in Grand Manan. My destination for the day would be Ellsworth, Maine. Geosh Fathauer of Ohio, had forwarded a couple of my post to his friend Matthew Baya who lived in Ellsworth and he had invited me down to spend the night in his drive. I was dropping in un-announced so I wasn't sure what kind of reception I would get. I was pleasantly surprised. Matthew is a Macintosh Computor Technician for a Labrotory in Bar Harbor, Maine and had just moved out here from Ohio a few weeks earlier. His wife was due to arrive in the coming weeks. He welcomed me with great hospitality. We talked a while and played some guitar. Matt is a great guy. In fact he wasn't even upset when Gus decided it was way to cold to dookie outside and decided that he would drop a load in the house. Matt took it in stride and understood his predicamint. I am not sure I blame Gus at all, there was 8 inches of snow on the ground at the time. On Sunday morning Matthew baked some bread, that was delicious although a bit chewy for the pallet. We sat and talked a bit more, played some computor games while Gus chewed an old pair of Matt's shoes, and about mid morning I went on my way. For some reason I felt much better, and much more free than I had twenty-four hours earlier. Once again I was searching for the "beginning of wind". Mystery lay before me, and misery lay behind me. Before leaving Ellsworth I stopped in at the L.L. Bean Discount Store to see if I could run into some outrageously great bargins. To be honest I am not sure why they want to call this a discount store. Everything was priced sky high and to be honest was no better than some stuff you see at Walmart or Kmart. I think the Beans have a greedy streek somehwere deep inside their souls. One day it will catch up with them, I have said it before "Greed is one of the seven deadly sins". When I lived in Vidalia Georgia a few years ago we had a manufacturing company called Oxford Shirt Company. The Plant had a discount store off to the side of the main plant that sold overruns etc.. Oxford is the manufacturer of shirts sold in the L.L. Bean catolog, as well as Eddie Bauer, and some other catolog companies. At the Oxford discount store, I could buy first run shirts that had been overruns for $7.00 a piece. These were exactly the same shirts you could order from the catalog, the only difference was that the label had been cut out. Now there is no way that label cost $30.00, as Oxford was just trying to re coup the cost of manufacturing the shirt. I say we all should boycott Bean's for their greediness. We should also boycott all the others that try and make an unfair profit margin off all of us. The Oxford store eventually closed and from what i hear, it is because Bean's asked them too, so they could make more profit from there outlet store. if this is true, then double shame on L.L. Bean. You have just taken clothing from people can't afford your prices. Shame on you!!! After leaving Beans, I went to Willies, another discount store. It was there I found the best deals. Shirts galore for under ten dollars. I bought two of them and walked away feeling better for the purchase. I drove out of Ellsworth and headed south on Highway #1, destination, Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The snow was still pretty thick, but the roads were clear. The mist created by the passing cars made me have to stop and clean my windshield about every ten miles or so. That was no problem as it gave me a chance to talk with the locals. I eased on down the coast of Maine through all the small towns and villages. They all seem to look the same along this stretch of road. The little towns with tall church steeples and fishing rigs of summer parked in the yard for winter. The people are all dressed like eskimos and the cars all have that coating of salt created by the highway department because of the snow. I drove all afternoon along route #1. I saw mountains and coastline, and flatlands. I drove past snow plows, and plowed snow, and snow that needed a snowplow. Life was cold but it was good. I finally reached Bath, Maine, where highway #1 and Interstate 95 intersect. I decided that since it was getting dark I would take 95 and get on down to Portsmouth. I finally crossed the bridge into New Hampshire and stopped to call Ned Savoie, a list member that lives here. Ned was still at his office on a Sunday night. He gave me directions to the office and told me to come on over. I arrived at his office and met he and one of his friend/employees Jenny. We all sat and talked for a while. Ned is the one of the owners of Harbor Light productions, he and his brother share the responsibility. This company is a builder of Web Pages, and other multimedia products for corporate business. As far as I can tell they are one of the best out there. One of his latest clients is Red Hook Brewery. In lieu of that little fact we all had a beer, Red Hook of course. Afterwards we all drove over to Jenny's house and had some food (pizza) and more beer, once again, Red Hook of course. Finally, after some good conversation and a dog fight between Izzy, Ned's dog, and Gus, I followed Ned over to his house and we set up the Mothership for the night. Gus and I slept right nice and didn't wake up once. The next morning I rose about 8:30, took a shower, and drove up to Ned's office so I could write my last post to you guys. That post was probably the hardest one I have written to date. I found myself really torn as to how to explain the situation I confronted on the island. Of course you want to be truthful, but at the same time you don't want to be insulting and burn bridges. It took me three hours and a couple of re-writes but I got it written, and felt better because it was out of the way. On Wednesday Ned and I went snow boarding. Ned is pretty good at this sport, but me, I have never even tried it. Let me tell you, it will beat you up the first time. I don't know about the second because I haven't been there yet, but I will let you know. The instructor stayed with me all morning and I actually got to where I could ride a little ways before eating more snow. The next two days were spent trying to overcome my sore muscles and bruises. I will do it again one of these days. I want to get better at it. The key is to not be nervous. You have to get used to the speed, try and find your center of balance, and then learn how to control your movement. After that your a snowboarding fool I figure. Niether of the three did I figure out that day, so needless to explain, I am not a snowboarding fool. On Thursday evening we all went out and had sushi. Todd, Ned's buddy and Jenny and myself sat there and ate like Japenese fools. We sat in the section where you are supposed to take your shoes off in the Japanese tradition. I refused to do this, I had worn my boots all days long and I know my feet way to well to expose the resturaunt patrons to this odor. I kept them on and I am sure the owners just didn't know how well blessed they were because I had. On Friday we had dinner at Todd's house. Pasta and sauce was the flavor of the evening and Gus decided he would become an imbibbing dog. He got his nose into a mug of beer, Red Hook of course, thta was sitting on a table and lapped down the entire cup. He loved the stuff, he drank it and then asked for more. All of a sudden he got really entertaining. He would jump on the couch then jump off again only too stumble and fall over his ears and big front feet. He was hilarious. That night he slept like a rock, and snored like a buzz saw. The next day you could tell he was not in good spirits at all. I am sure he had a major headache. Portsmouth is a histroic city with a lot of flavor. It sits right on the river that separates Maine and New Hampshire, Portsmouth on the south bank, and Kittery maine on the north bank. A lot of the areas claim to fame involves the US Navy and being one of the original colonies. I mean think about it, Plymouth Rock is only a little ways down the road as is Boston. I found the city to be very nice and quaint. It is filled with homes built in the 1600's which to me is really incredible. One of the most entertaining places i found was the Kittery House of Pizza. the first night I was there we had ordered pizza from there, so on another night i decided I would stop in and get a sandwich. I walked in and you could have cut the stressful air with a knife. Before i left I got the whole story. it seems that the guy that worked there was the son in law of the Greek lady that owned the place. She had been accusing every delivery boy for the past three years of stealing from her. Now, 15 delivery boys later, the guy is about fed up. I heard it all while I ate my sandwich. While there, I also met and got to talking to the Assistant Chief of Police at the Naval Yard. he and I swapped some lies over a beer, Red hook of course, and he filled me in on the dirt. We sat and talked about the Navy yard and he did confirm the the USNavy was created in Whitehall, NY, although Portsmouth had been involved since then as well. He said this because he was from Whitehall, NY. A helluva time was had by all. On Friday morning, after some scanning on Ned's computor, I departed Portsmouth and headed down to Ric Golen's place in New Bedord Mass. Ric is a nice guy and I enjoyed meeting him although being around a rambunctious 6 year old is pretty tough on my psychy these days. His son Alex is a pistol ball to say the least. Gus was also tired when we left. On the way down to Ric's place I had a shock bolt shake loose. Bill Bowman and I had torqued them to the spec's listed in the Bentley manual and yes, as we assumed, that was way to loose. I found another bolt to replace this one and this time I am putting the mojo on the damn thing. Can't have the Dan Soiney thing happening on my journey, like it did to him on his way to BBTA. I left Ric's on Sunday morning and headed back up to Nashua, New Hampshire where Jon Hathaway has invited me to come in and celebrate Thanksgiving. Before coming back up I drove over to cape Cod and visited Hyannisport. I wanted to see one of the Kennedy's but they were not home. I am sure they will hate it that they missed me. Out on Hyannisport I met the most rude cops I have ever met. This young piss-ant of a cop was very short and rude with me although all I was doing was asking him directions. It was not a very good impression for some place that makes a lot of thier money from tourism. I drove back through Boston and made it to Nashua. I am here now and will be here through probably Friday or Saturday. I will keep you guys posted as I can. Life is good although there still remains the downside of heading south for the final leg of the journey. While in this area I plan on visitng the grave of Jack Kerouac which is right down the road in Lowell, Mass. I hope it is as inspiratinal as I expect it to be. he was an adventurer in his own right, but now he lay still in the cold grave covered with snow. Well, life be like that ya know. Thanks for tolerating the ramblings. Charlie Ford "79" Transporter, dressed for the road The Mothership The"Turning 40 Nostalgic VW Service Tour, and Search for the Beginning of Wind". http://www.slurpee.net/~keen/charlie/charlie.html "Wider still and wider.....shall thy bounds be set"